The Matrix: Reboot
by Garrowolf1
Summary: This is a retelling of the events of the Matrix Trilogy, changing some of the concepts and reorganizing many things.
1. Chapter 1 - Dreaming

The Matrix: Reboot – Ch 1

Neo was sitting in his apartment with several computers sitting on various tables and desks. Some were taken apart and others were in use. He was focused on three monitors that were showing him his latest hack. They were a part of a program that he created called Classified. It created an Agent on the internet that was tied to several police and federal databases. Whenever certain information was placed on the system it erased it. If someone persisted then they would receive a note that the person was tied to a classified investigation and no information was allowed on be recorded about them on regular databases. They have to leave that person alone. Then he tied it to the identity information about a particular person and they became effectively unplugged from the system.

He was in the FBI database at that moment, making sure that Classified was working. He was forcing input from one section and seeing to it that the Classified Agent program removed it. He could almost see the code in the system working. He had been on the FBI database server so many times that he could just feel when there was activity of certain kinds.

As he was working he felt something shift. He checked on one of his other computers that he was using to access the FBI server security system to see if he was compromised. There was no alarms from the security system.

What was that? He thought. He looked over at the third computer that was monitoring his spoof and redirection programs. No one was tracing him.

He started to go back to work when text appeared on his command line.

[Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real?

What if you were unable to wake from that dream, Neo?

How would you know the difference between the dreamworld and the real world?]

What … the … Hell?!

That was on his own command line, not on the window with the server.

Neo was freaking out! Who was doing this? Is this an Agent of the FBI?

Neo leaned forward and typed, "Who is this?"

[Morpheus]

Neo said, "Holy crap! Morpheus! THE Morpheus?!"

[Yes, THE Morpheus]

That freaked him out a bit more. How did he hear him? Maybe he had accessed his microphone. He had heard of Morpheus before. He was a legendary hacker credited with some of the most impressive hacks he had ever heard of.

Neo said, "What do you want with me?"

[I understand that you are looking for the Matrix]

Neo had been searching for experiences similar to his own. He had these dreams where he was waking up in a strange pod. He had found a few other people on the internet that talked about the same experience. Everyone knew that it had to do with something called the Matrix but no one knew what it was.

Neo said, "What is the Matrix?"

[No one can be told what the Matrix is. Your mind will not accept it. You have to see it for yourself.]

"Can you show me the Matrix?" asked Neo.

[You already see the Matrix but I can help you see it for what it really is.]

"What is it?" asked Neo.

[We must meet. We don't have much time. They are already looking for you. We must both log out now!]

The computer that was monitoring the security system for the FBI server started to show a warning.

Neo logged out of the FBI system and added to the spoof and redirection programs until the system was tied up. Then he erased any trace of his activities.

Neo had this dream several times but it always felt so different from regular dreams. For one his eyes hurt from the brightness. He dreamed that he was laying in some sort of pod, naked and covered in jelly. A tube was sticking down his throat but it didn't hurt. It felt oddly comfortable, not raw like when he was in the hospital last. There were more tubes sticking out of his arms and torso. They seemed to be feeding him and taking away waste.

He was pushing against this strange red membrane. He felt it tear and his hand went through into the cold, wet air. He opened the membrane enough to see the sky. It was nighttime and he could see the stars among the clouds. There was lightning nearby. He could hear it but he didn't see it. He was just able to see flashes of light around him. He looked straight up and saw some sort of pod above him. It was shaped like a closed flower bud but it was dark and harsh looking. He looked up at an angle and it looked like there were many more pods with red on the surface facing up and away from him. He guessed that they all held different people.

He tried to sit up but but he felt like he was caught on something. He felt back and found a hose of some kind attached to the back of his head. He tried to pull it out but then he woke up.

Neo woke up at his desk and saw that his alarm clock was going off and had been for 15 minutes. He was going to be late! Again!

Neo rushed through getting ready and made his way to work as fast as he could. He got stuck at a light and he wished that he had thought ahead to hack the lights so that he could make it into work on time. He made it in only 30 minutes late. He was immediately told to come into Mr. Reinhart's office.

Reinhart, "You seem to have a problem with authority, Mr. Anderson. You believe that you are special, that somehow the rules do not apply to you. Obviously, you are mistaken."

"Meta Cortechs is one of the top software companies in the world because every single employee understands that they are part of a whole. Thus, if an employee has a problem, the company has a problem."

"The time has come for you to make a choice, Mr. Anderson. Either you choose to be at your desk on time from this day forth, or you choose to find yourself another job. Do I make myself clear?"

Neo said, "Yes, Mr. Reinhart. Perfectly clear."

Reinhart waved him out and Neo went to his cubicle.

He sat down frustrated. He looked over at the little doll of the pointed haired boss that he had on top of his computer monitor and smacked it. Sometimes he felt like Dilbert. He was a bit chubby too and he wore glasses. Mr. Reinhart didn't really look like the pointy haired boss from Dilbert but it was the spirit that counted.

A FedEx deliveryman came up to his cubicle, "Hey Tom"

"Hey Frank! How's it going?" said Neo.

Frank handed him a softpak and a PDA to sign, "Busy. You getting more RAM?"

Neo took it and signed the PDA. "I don't think so. Doesn't feel right." He handed the PDA back to Frank.

"Hey did you watch that new podcast?" asked Frank.

"The one about deconstructing scifi movies or the one about religious themes in movies?" asked Neo.

"No, the one about how to keep sequels from sucking and that they should focus on the plot more then the special effects." said Frank.

Neo nodded no, "I haven't watched that one yet. I did really liked the one about producers who make their movies so filled with references but don't have the basic story that the references are referencing make any sense. It's like they think that the references are the point of a story."

"Yeah I loved working on that one." said Frank. "I've got about a thousand more deliveries to make before they let me eat or go to the bathroom. Catch you later!" Frank left.

Neo chuckled and opened the softpak and a cell phone landed in his hand. It rang immediately.

Neo was startled. He looked around to see if anyone was looking at him, maybe as a part of a prank. No one was looking. He opened it, "Hello?"

"Hello Neo, do you know who this is?" came a deep voice on the phone.

"Morpheus?" said Neo, he leaned forward to hide behind the cubicle walls better.

"They are coming for you, Neo, and I'm not sure what they are going to do." said Morpheus.

Neo asked, "Who is coming for me?"

"See for yourself." said Morpheus.

"Right now?!" said Neo.

"Yes. Now." said Morpheus.

Neo starts to stand.

Morpheus says, "Do it slowly. The elevator."

Neo peeked over the partition and saw three serious looking guys in dark suits leading a group of cops. A female employee turns and pointed in Neo's direction. Neo ducked.

"Holy Shit!" said Neo.

"Yes."

"What the hell do they want with me?" asked Neo.

"I'm not sure but if you don't want to find out you had better get out of there."

"How?" asked Neo.

"I can guide you out but you have to do exactly as I say." said Morpheus. "They cubicle across from you is empty. Go to it!"

"But...?"

"Now!" demanded Morpheus.

Neo tried to shuffle under the level of the cubicle partitions but he slipped on some paper in the next cubicle and his head slammed into a set of file drawers. He laid there stunned while the three agents came up to his cubicle and looked down at him. The cell phone clicked off beside him.

They picked him up and frog marched him down to a car on the street. The police had part of the street blocked off. Neo looked around at the people on the street. They were watching him get hauled away.

Then he saw her. There was this beautiful woman dressed in all black on a black motorcycle. He could feel her watching him through her rear view mirror. He stopped and looked at her. She had black leather over most of her shapely body and she seemed so familiar. One of the Agents looked over at who Neo was looking at and she took off.

The Agent grabbed his arm tighter and shoved him in the car. All three of the Agents got into the car with him. They proceeded to an office in a generic office building. On the way he tried to figure out who they were with but they were so generic themselves that he had no idea.

People watched as they marched him past cubicle after cubicle in an office that looked almost exactly like the one at his work. He could not even tell what part of the government they worked for. He was guided into a blank white room with a table, two chairs, and plastic pitcher with water in it and a cup. A video camera watched the room from a high corner.

He was pushed into a chair on one side of the table and one of the Agents sat at the other side with a large file divided into two sections collected by two large black binder clips. The folder said "Anderson, Thomas A." on it in large bold letters.

The Agent across from him said, "As you can see, we've had our eye on you for some time, Mr. Anderson." He opened the file into two large stacks. Neo couldn't tell if the Agent was looking at him or the file through the black sunglasses that he was wearing. "It seems that you have been living two lives. In one life, you are Thomas A. Anderson, you are a program writer for a respectable software company. You have a social security number, you pay your taxes and help your landlady carry out the garbage." The Agent spoke as he flipped through one side. Then he switched to the other side, "The other life is lived in computers where you go by the hacker alias Neo, and you are guilty of virtually every computer crime we have a law for." He closed the thick file, "One of these lives has a future. The other does not."

The Agent looked at Neo, "I'm going to be as forthcoming as I can be, Mr. Anderson. You are here because we need your help." He removed his sunglasses revealing icy blue eyes. "We know that you have been contacted by a certain individual. A man who calls himself Morpheus. Whatever you think that you know about this man is irrelevant. The fact is that he is wanted for more acts of terrorism in more countries than any other man in the world. He is considered by many authorities to be the most dangerous person alive."

The Agent leaned forward and gestured towards the other two Agents, "My colleagues believe that I am wasting my time with you but I believe that you want to do the right thing. It is obvious that you are an intelligent man, Mr. Anderson, and that you are interested in the future. That is why I believe you are ready to put your past mistakes behind you and get on with your life."

The Agent leaned back and pushed the file folder to one side, "We are willing to wipe the slate clean, to give you a fresh start and all we are asking in return is your cooperation in bringing a known terrorist to justice." He put back on his sunglasses. "However if you do not cooperate then we will forced to consider you an accomplice to his crimes. That would make you a terrorist. I assume that you know that would eliminate any real rights you have under the justice system. You would be considered an enemy combatant and would have little or no rights. We could send you somewhere outside of the country and have our conversations without nearly as much restraint. What will it be, Mr. Anderson?"

Neo normally would have called them on their Gestapo tactics and given them the finger in exchange for his phone call but being classified as a terrorist these days was pretty much a guilty sentence and he may never get a trial. They could do anything they wanted to him and he might never see a lawyer, much less have any rights, if they put him somewhere out of the country.

Neo swallowed, "I don't know anything about him. He contacted me on his own yesterday but it was a very short conversation and it didn't make any sense. He was asking philosophical questions about dreaming. He called me again today to tell me that you guys were coming for me. Other than that I haven't had any contact with him."

The Agent said, "So he hasn't asked you to meet him or do anything yet."

"No. Nothing. Of course the conversations have been cut short so I don't know what he was leading up to." said Neo.

"Would you be willing to wear a wire for us?" asked the Agent.

Neo felt defeated, "Yeah. Sure."

He started to open his shirt but the Agent stopped him. "We are a little more sophisticated here than that. You have been watching too many TV shows."

The Agent held out his hand and another Agent placed a clear pill in his hand. He held it up in his hand. Neo could see tiny electronics in it. "This will be able to track your movements and hear everything around you for about 15 feet in a quiet room. It won't show up on any metal detectors. It will attach itself to the lining of your stomach. If he tries to meet you steer him towards a quieter place."

"I understand." said Neo.

The Agent handed Neo the pill and poured him some water.

Neo looked at the pill, took a deep breath, and swallowed it with some water. It almost felt like it was alive as it went down. He choked a bit and drank some more water.

"Is there some sort of code word I should use at some point?" asked Neo.

"No. Any attempt to signal us would likely just get you caught. Don't try to talk to us or make any special attempts to get a good recording beyond going to a quiet room. We will find you if we need to give you any instructions." said the Agent.

The Agent stood up, "We will take you back to your work. Wait for them to contact you and go along with what they ask you to do. We will come in and stop them before they do anything to you. As long as you cooperate fully with us, your past will be swept clean and you will be able to go on with your legal life. Do we understand each other Mr. Anderson?"

"Yeah" was all the Neo could say to that. He had been turned into a living trap for someone he admired. He felt like such a traitor.

They took him back to his office and he sat back at his cubicle. He stared at his computer for a while. He tried to work but he couldn't focus. All he could think about was that pill in his stomach listen to everything around him. When he was finally able to stop thinking about it he found himself drumming on his stomach to a song in his head. He made himself stop it.

He headed directly home after work and sat down in front of his computer. He didn't know what to do about his old life as Neo. He decided after a while to start deleting everything. He copied a few things that he wanted to keep onto a flash drive and reformatted his hard drives to ext4 and ntfs and back. There was no chance of recovering anything at that point. He even started deleting his mp3 collection when he saw text appear on his command line.

[Follow the White Rabbit]

He stared at his screen for a moment. What the hell does that mean?

[Knock, Knock, Neo]

There was a knock at his door. He felt like he jumped out of his skin.

"Who is it?" Neo yelled at the door.

"It's Choi" was yelled back.

Neo shook his head. He had forgotten about Choi coming by tonight. He looked back at the computer but the text was gone.

"Hold on!" yelled Neo. Then more quietly to his stomach, "If I don't do this trade they will know something is up." He got up and unlocked several deadbolts but left the chain on.

Choi was standing with a girl and a couple of guys behind them.

Neo said, "Your late."

Choi tilted his head at the girl, "It's her fault."

"You got the money." said Neo.

Choi said"Two grand" and hands him an envelope through the crack in the door.

"Hold on" said Neo and he closed the door. He took a thumb drive out of a book called Simulacra and Simulations and dropped the money in there. Then he dropped the book beside his bed. He opened the door all the way this time and handed Choi the thumb drive.

"Hallelujah! You are my own personal Savior man. My own personal Jesus Christ." said Choi.

"If you get caught using that..." said Neo.

Choi said, "I know, I know. This never happened. You don't exist."

"Right..." said Neo.

Choi asked, "Something wrong, man? You look whiter then usual."

"Hard day." said Neo

"It sounds to me like you need to unplug, man. A little R&R." Choi asked the girl on his arm, "What do you think Dujour? Should we take him with us?"

Dujour smiled, "Definitely."

"I can't. I have to work tomorrow." said Neo.

Dujour curled around Choi's arm, "Come on. It'll be fun. I promise." When she turned he was able to see a tattoo of a white rabbit on her shoulder.

He stared at it for a moment. How did Morpheus do that? Where these guys working for Morpheus?

"Yeah, sure, I'll go." said Neo. He grabbed a jacket and they left.

Choi and crew brought Neo to an old hotel that had been converted into a club. It was playing industrial music loudly and had smoke in a low haze over the whole place. Then they all but abandoned him to his own devices. He ended up standing against a column drinking a beer, feeling completely out of place.

After a while he noticed a beautiful woman in a black body suit coming towards him. She had black hair and black glasses. He was staring at her a bit but he was expecting her to walk past him. He looked away for a moment, a little shy.

"Hello Neo." said Trinity.

Neo looked around confused, "How do you know that name?" Maybe Choi directed her over to him?

"I know a lot about you. I've been wanting to meet you for some time." said Trinity.

"Who are you?" asked Neo.

"My name is Trinity."

"Trinity" said Neo. Then he remembered, "The Trinity? The Trinity that cracked the IRS database?"

"That was a long time ago." said Trinity.

"Geezus" said Neo.

"What?"

"I just thought … you were a guy." said Neo sheepishly.

"Most guys do." said Trinity with a smile. Then she was more serious, "Morpheus sent me to extract you."

Neo looked at her and mouthed, "They are listening." and he pointed at his stomach.

She smiled, "I know." She signaled for him to follow her.

She led them out into a back room. She turned and pulled out a small device about the size of a pager. She mouthed, "Jammer" and put it into his pocket.

He nodded.

"Are you ready to go?" ask Trinity. "I can take you to Morpheus now but it won't be safe for you to return to your old life."

Neo chuckled, "I was already asked which life I wanted. This is the one I choose."

"Alright. Let's go." Trinity opened a back door to an alley. There was a black sedan with two other people there.

"This is Apoc," Trinity nodded to a large guy in black. "and this is Switch." She nodded to a woman with white hair dressed in all white.

Neo nodded to them, "I'm Neo"

Apoc said, "We know"

Neo looked at him for a moment.

Trinity opened the back door, "Get in."

Neo got in the back and Trinity sat beside him. Apoc got in to drive with Switch up front. They backed out and headed out on the road.

Neo turned to ask Trinity a question when Switch turned in her seat and pointed a gun at him.

"What the hell is this?" asked Neo.

"Take off your shirt." said Switch.

"It's necessary, Neo. For our protection." said Trinity. She pulls out what looks like a flare gun with a clear tube.

"Wait! What is that?" asked Neo, getting panicked.

Switch said, "Stop the car."

Apoc pulled over.

"Listen to me. We don't have time for twenty questions. Right now there is only one rule. Our way or the highway." said Switch.

Neo was tired of all of this. Things were changing too quickly for him. He didn't know if he was working for those Agents or if he wanted to run away with these people. He wanted his life to get back to normal and make sense. "Fine!" He opened the door. It had started raining.

Trinity grabbed his arm, "Neo, please. You have to trust me!"

He looked back at her, "Why should I?" He needed a reason for all of this to make sense.

"Because you've been down there, Neo. You already know that road. You know where it ends." Trinity said. "And you know that it is not where you want to be."

Neo looked down the road. He did know that road, all too well. He could see it as years of working for morons like Reinhart. That was what the Agents were offering. It was a life of the norm. It was a meaningless life that didn't matter at all to anyone, even himself. He spent all of his free time trying to help others escape the system but he kept on getting up in the morning and returning to it, for what? He was living in a tiny crappy apartment staring at screens all the time or working in a tiny crappy cubicle staring at screens all the time so that someone else could take his work and make money off of it. He was tired of that road. He was tired of the normal day to day of his life.

He took a deep breath and shut the door. He looked at her and said, "Okay. Let's do this." Then he turned to Switch, "Without the gun."

Switch looked like she was going to argue but Trinity looked at her and she put it away. Apoc pulled out onto the road again.

"Lay back and take off your shirt." said Trinity.

Neo did so. Trinity pointed the device that looked like a flare gun at his stomach.

"What is that for?" asked Neo.

"It will let us remove the tracer pill from you." said Trinity.

"How does it work?" asked Neo.

Trinity turned on a switch on the side and he felt like something was moving in his stomach. It made him want to puke.

"Are you going to short it out and let it pass?" asked Neo.

"Just try to relax." said Trinity. Then she moved it around until she got a green light. "Clear!" She pulled the trigger. The tracer pill popped through his stomach wall and into the clear tube. It looked like a cross between a fuse and a clear shrimp that was moving it's legs and antenna around.

"Jesus Christ! What the hell is that?!" Neo yelled. He looked down at his stomach and there was no wound, only a bit of a red spot.

The car pulled over again and Trinity dumped it out into the rain. Then she closed the door and they took off again. They changed directions.

"What was that?" asked Neo.

"It was a bug." said Trinity. She pulled the jammer out of his pocket and turned it off.

The car stopped at another old hotel that was closed. They got out.

The hotel was old and abandoned but it still had lights on. They went over to the elevator and got in. It had a cage door that folded closed and a large contact switch to activate it. Apoc pushed the switch forward until they got to the thirteenth floor and pulled back to stop it. They pulled the cage out of the way.

Trinity guided him over to room 1313. Apoc and Switch went in to the room next door.

"This is it." said Trinity. "Let me give you a piece of advice. Be honest. He knows more than you can possibly imagine." She turned and went into the next room.

Neo nodded. He turned toward the door and took a deep breath, then he opened it.

Standing across the room he could see a black man wearing a long black leather coat staring out the windows.

He turned, "At last." He was wearing circular mirrored glasses. "Welcome Neo. As you have no doubt guessed, I am Morpheus."

He waved to two cracked burgundy leather chairs, "Come. Sit."

They both sat down. There was a small table between them with a glass of water. It reminded him of the meeting with the Agents.

"I imagine that, right now, you feel a little like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole." said Morpheus.

Neo nodded, "You could say that."

"I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up." Morpheus smiles. "Ironically this is not far from the truth. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Do you believe in fate, Neo?"

"No" said Neo.

"Why not?" asked Morpheus.

"Because I don't like the idea that I am not in control of my life?" said Neo.

"I know exactly what you mean." said Morpheus. "Let me tell you why you are here. You have come because you know something. What you know, you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, felt that something was wrong with the world. You don't know what it is but it's like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is that feeling that brought you to me. Do you know what I am talking about?"

Neo said, "The Matrix"

"Do you know what it is?"

Neo nods no.

"The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even in this room. You can see it out your window or on your television. You feel it when you go to work, or go to church or to pay taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you to the truth." said Morpheus

"What truth?" asked Neo.

"That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, kept inside a prison that you cannot taste, smell, or touch. A prison for your mind." said Morpheus.

"Unfortunately no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself." said Morpheus.

Neo sat there for a moment, "I think I have seen it."

"What do you mean?" said Morpheus. He seemed curious, as if this was not a common response.

"I have these dreams where I feel I am actually awake, like this is the dream. In these strange dreams I am in a pod with hundreds of pods around me. I have tubes running into my body all over, even one in the back of my skull." Neo felt the back of his head when he said this. "Is that the Matrix?"

Morpheus looked surprised. "Actually that IS the real world. We are in the Matrix." He leaned forward, "Are you telling me that you can wake yourself up?"

Neo looked back at him and thought about what he said, "Yes I can."

Morpheus was taken aback. He sat for a moment.

"How do I get out into the real world?" asked Neo.

Morpheus collected himself, "We need to initiate a trace program to find where your body is in the real world." He held out a red pill in one hand and a blue pill in the other.

"Great. Another pill." said Neo.

"I feel I still must give you the choice. This is the last chance. You take the blue pill and the story ends. You will forget the events of the last few days and you can believe anything you want in the morning. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."

Neo picks the red pill and looks at it. "This is how you will trace where I am?"

"Yes." said Morpheus.

He swallows it.

Morpheus stands, "Excellent, follow me."

He walks to a door and opens it into the next room. The room is filled with high tech equipment. Trinity, Apoc, Switch, and Cypher are working quickly on a system of monitors and what looks like server equipment.

"Apoc, are we online?" asked Morpheus.

Apoc said, "Almost"

Morpheus said, "Time is always against us. Neo, will you take a seat there?" He pointed to a cracked old chair.

Neo sat down and Trinity put white electrode disks on his head and chest. She smiled at him as she did it. Then she placed a pair of large headphones on him.

Morpheus turned to him, "The pill you took is part of a Trace program. It is designed to disrupt your input/output carrier signal so that we can pinpoint your location."

Neo nodded.

Cypher said, "Buckle up, Dorothy, 'cause Kansas is going bye-bye!"

Morpheus said, "Focus on those dreams you've been having."

Apoc said, "We are getting a signal."

"Is it one of the towers we have control over?" asked Morpheus.

"Yes!" said Apoc.

Morpheus touched a bluetooth ear piece, "Tank, We've got the signal. Tell them to move the ship to that tower quickly."

Neo felt himself slipping away. He focused on his dreams. After a moment he felt like his body was going numb.

Trinity said, "He's going into fibrillation. His avatar is shutting down. Signal down to 40%."

Neo felt cold.

"...30%"

Everything was getting quiet.

"...20%"

He stopped feeling anything.

"...10%"

He could barely hear her.

"..5...4...3...2..."

Then he woke up. He was in the gel pod. He pushed against the membrane around his pod. It had healed since the last time he pushed through it. It tore as he sat up. He forced his arms through and the red membrane split aside. He sat up and saw the other towers. It was cold once he pulled out of the heated gel he was laying in. The sun was rising. He held his hand up to shield his eyes.

It was a new day and he was fully wake for the first time in his life. It felt good.

Then a strange insect-like robot looked down at him. It was crawling along the tower of pods with long spindly legs. It waved a metal hand at him. Neo looked up at it. He realized that one of Morpheus's people must be controlling it. It grabbed his face. He could feel it remove the cable from the back of his skull then it let him go.

The tubes on his arms and torso started to pop off and disconnect from him. The metal hand waved bye-bye. The pod flushed him out. He slid down a series of tubes with all the gel that was in his pod into a pool. The current pulled him along for a moment. He saw a bright light and a huge ship above him with electricity arcing off several disks. A door opened above him and a larger metal hand came down to pick him up. It carried him inside the ship and laid him on a table.

Neo looked around with blurry eyes and saw Morpheus and Trinity but they were not dressed in black leather. They had gray, loose fitting, warn clothes on.

Morpheus said to his quietly, "Welcome to the REAL World."


	2. Chapter 2 - Waking Up

The Matrix: Reboot – Ch 2

Neo heard voices whispering.

"This is weird. His muscles are not atrophied like normal. He could still use some work but he could actually get up right now." said one voice.

"It must be from waking himself up. He was moving more then most people." said Morpheus

"He doesn't even need his eyes replaced or worked on." said the first voice.

"It is remarkable. I think he really is the One." said Morpheus.

"Trinity will be happy." said the first voice.

"We don't know how much he will remember. Let's just deal with getting him up and moving for now." said Morpheus.

Then Neo faded out.

He woke up again with an IV sticking in one of the ports in his arm. He was laying in a bed. Everything in the room looked like it was made of metal. There was motion and vibrations being translated through the walls. He was on some kind of ship but it didn't have the kind of rolling motion that a ship on the water should have. He pulled the IV out of the port.

He started feeling along his head. He was bald and he had a port in the back of his skull. He could feel the metal connections. It was frightening.

He looked down. He was wearing gray, loose fitting, clothes. They looked hand made but of fairly poor quality. He also realized that his body was thin. He didn't have the chubbiness that he did when he was asleep. That was confusing.

Neo turned in his bed and put his feet on the floor. His muscles were sore but it felt good. They felt real in a way he never experienced before. He stood up and had to steady himself. His equilibrium was off. It made sense, since he had been laying on his back all his life. His feet felt very tender on the cold metal floor. He missed the callouses that he used to have, or thought he had.

He made his way over to the door. He had to turn a metal wheel hard to get the door open. He felt weak as a kitten but he was determined to move around. He had been laying down way too long. He finally got the door open and he had to shield his eyes from the light.

Trinity was standing out in the corridor. There was a chair sitting with it's back against the wall beside his door. She smiled at him. She must have been waiting on him to wake up.

She had shorter hair then when he saw he last. He was able to see the ports on her arm as well.

"How are you feeling?" ask Trinity.

"Weak." said Neo.

"You are moving around more quickly than most." said Trinity. "Why don't we get some food into you first."

"Okay."

They made it along the corridor. There was a large black man welding something ahead. It sent a piercing pain through Neo's sensitive eyes. He stopped and held his head with his eyes closed.

"Tank!" yelled Trinity.

The man stopped and took off his welder's mask. He looked over at them and stood up.

"Sorry about that." He took off his gloves and offered his hand. "I'm Tank."

As Neo shook his hand he noticed his arms, "You don't have..."

"Any holes?" asked Tank. "Nope. Me and my brother Dozer, we are one hundred percent pure, old fashioned, home-grown human. Born free. Right here in the real world. Genuine child of Zion."

"Zion?" asked Neo.

"If this war ended tomorrow, Zion is where the party would be." said Tank.

"It's a city?"

"The last physical human city." said Tank.

"Physical?" asked Neo.

"Well there is also Shangra-la." said Tank. "It's a free virtual city. It is made up from some of the towers that we have been able to totally free. We don't have the resources to feed everyone and if we woke up too many sleepers then the machines would catch on to some of the systems we have highjacked. So instead we leave them in the towers but tell them what is really going on. They act as operators for Zion and they help hack the machine systems. They were able to hack some of the machine's manufacturing plants to make the hovercrafts." He patted the bulkhead of the ship.

Trinity said, "I'm going to get some food into him."

"Such as it is." said Tank. "Nice to meet you Neo." He patted him on the shoulder a bit heavily.

"You too." Neo winced.

Trinity helped him further down the corridor into a room with a long table in it. Trinity helped him sit down. Then she went over to a dispenser of some sort.

Tank came in after him and went over to the dispenser as well. Then a small guy came in and sat down.

Tank and Trinity carried over some bowels and cups.

Tank said, "This is Mouse. He is an excellent Coder."

Mouse nodded to him shyly.

Trinity put a drink in front of him and Tank put a bowel of mush. "Here you go buddy, breakfast of champions."

Apoc came in as Tank was saying that, "You mean the breakfast, lunch, and dinner of Champions."

Others file in an say hi to Neo.

Tank slaps another black guy on the back, "This is my brother Dozer. He will be you Operator." He points to Apoc, "You've met Switch and Cypher, they are Operatives."

Neo stopped and looked confused at Switch. Switch was a young white haired man that was smiling at him. "Oh, Switch – I get it."

Switch nodded at him. "How's it going?"

Neo nodded back and then nodded at Cypher.

Several of them got a drink and a few picked up a bowl.

Neo looked back down at.

Trinity said, "Try it. It isn't that bad."

Neo ate some. It wasn't good.

Mouse said, "If you close your eyes, it almost feels like you are eating runny eggs."

"Or a bowl of snot." said Apoc

Neo almost choked at that.

"You know what it reminds me of? Cream of Wheat. Did you ever eat Cream of Wheat?" asked Mouse.  
Switch said, "Neither did you." to Mouse.

"Exactly my point." said Mouse, "You have to wonder how the machines know what Cream of Wheat tastes like. Maybe they got it wrong, maybe what I think Cream of Wheat tasted like actually tasted like oatmeal, or tuna." He looked around at everyone to see if they followed him. "It makes you wonder about a lot of things. Take chicken for example. Maybe they couldn't figure out what chicken tastes like, or maybe it was the only thing that they could figure out what it tastes like so they made everything taste like it. And maybe -"

"Shut up Mouse!" said Apoc.

Neo swallowed some more of the stuff.

"It's a single-celled protein combined with synthetic aminos, vitamins, and minerals." said Dozer "We grow it in a vat. Everything your body needs."

Mouse mumbled, "Not everything the body needs."

Morpheus comes in and sees Neo. "Good, you are awake." He looks around, "You've met my crew. I'll show you around the ship a little."

Neo gets up, feeling a lot better. Trinity grabs his bowl and cup and puts them in a sink for him. Neo follows Morpheus out.

"This is my ship, the Nebuchadnezzar. It's a hovercraft.' said Morpheus. "It's small like a submarine and it's cramped and cold but it's home."

"What year is it?" ask Neo.

"It is July in the year 2197." said Morpheus. "We have recovered a decent amount of information and we are able to access the information that the machines have incorporated into the Matrix. Machines are, by their very nature, obsessive about keeping up with information."

"This is the crew deck. Mess hall/meeting room fore and crew quarters aft. There is a cargo area aft of that." Morpheus turned and led them up some stairs near the mess hall. "This is the main deck," Morpheus said, "From here the bridge is that way," he pointed fore, "My quarters and ready room are right here, the medical bay is over there," he pointed at an open room across the corridor. He turned and pointed at sets of ladders along the side of main deck. "These go up to the spinal deck and down to a supply deck. Access to the main weapons and broadcast equipment is along the spinal deck."

Morpheus turned and headed aft. There was a large room in the center of the ship. "This is the Core. This is where we broadcast our pirate signal and hack into the Matrix." There was a large group of flat panel monitors all pointed at a chair with several keyboards arranged around it. Beside that were several chairs that reminded Neo of dirty old dentist chairs arrayed in a circle roughly facing each other. Each one had a monitor attached to it by an armature.

Morpheus pointed to doors on either side of the Core, "Those are access to manual control for the port and starboard plasma cannons." Then he walked around the Core and opened a hatch. It revealed a room and 4 large cylinders with cables from the top of them running along the ceiling and Neo realized over the bulkheads in every direction. "This is the reactor room. We have four fusion reactors here, though two are down at the moment. Tank is working on them. We use them to power the contra-gravity generators that support the ship."

He turned to look at him, "You have a lot of training to get up to speed on the newer tech than you learned about in high school but first I will show you exactly what the Matrix is." He turned back towards the Core, "Come with me."

The rest of the crew had filtered back out to their jobs. Dozer sat down at the Operations chair for the Core. Trinity came over and guided him to one of the chairs and sat him down.

"How are you taking all of this?" asked Trinity.

"It's kind of overwhelming but it also makes sense with what I have been feeling." said Neo as he laid back in his chair.

"The Matrix tries to prevent you from understanding it's nature. Those that guess it usually end up having a psychotic break as a result of the conflict with the Matrix and their mind. That is why we really have to wait to show you what the Matrix is." Trinity explained. She put her hand on his forehead and pushed it back gently. "This is going to feel pretty weird." she warned him. Then she reached over and touched a button on the screen attached to his chair and the spike slid into the port in the back of his skull.

Neo blinked and he was suddenly standing in white space. There was nothing around him as he looked around.

Morpheus appeared near him, "This is the Loading Program." Startled Neo turns to him.

Morpheus pulled out a card out of his pocket and touched it. Two chairs, like the ones in the hotel where they met appeared along with an old TV. Morpheus gestured to the chairs, "Sit"

Neo came over behind his chair and felt the leather, "This is a computer program? Right now, we are inside it?"

Morpheus smiles, "Is it so hard to believe? Your clothes are different, the plugs in your arms and your head are gone. You were bald a moment ago and now you have hair."

Neo felt his hair and his arms.

Morpheus said, "This is your Avatar. It is how you are represented inside the virtual reality of the Matrix or our loading program. We have programmed yours to match your body in the real world but you may decide to change it."

"Like Switch?" asked Neo.

"Yes, exactly." said Morpheus. "See we can not generate a new avatar or a new object in the Matrix. It is programmed to prevent that. However we can make anything we want in this loading program so that we can practice. We can alter an existing object. When we load ourselves into the Matrix we take over existing avatars and the people that are normally in those bodies go to sleep. We can even jump into an avatar and decide not to change it. This is useful to manipulate the population inside the Matrix for various reasons."

"The programming attached to that object still limits us in terms of what we can in the Matrix, however a lot of those limitations are actually placed in our mind. The avatars are capable of so much more."

Neo looked at his hand, "So this version of me is not really me. None of this is real?"

"What is real? How do you define real?" asked Morpheus. "If you're talking about what you feel, taste, smell, or see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain."

Morpheus picked up a TV remote and turned it on. "This is the world you know. The world as it is at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It exists now only as a part of the neural-interactive simulation that we call the Matrix." He pressed another button on the remote and the white landscape around them was replaced with a post-apocalyptic wasteland. "This is the world as it is today – the Desert of the Real."

"We have passed through several ages since the Information Age of the late 20th and early 21st century. We moved through a Cyber Age where we developed medical science to a fashion. Then there was the Fusion Age. We truly lived in space at that point due to the miniaturization of the fusion reactor, similar to the four we have on the Nebuchadnezzar. We were just moving into a new age, what has been called the Gravitic Age. We discovered how to control and manipulate gravity. Our ships had artificial gravity and we could travel faster then ever before once inertia was bent to our will."

"However there was a problem. One scientist by the name of Wachowski was experimenting with giving emotions to AI systems." said Morpheus.

"Artificial Intelligence?" asked Neo.

"Yes. We have had them for nearly two centuries in one form or another but their emotions were always programmed to make it easier for them to interact with us. They were never set up to give themselves direction, until now." said Morpheus. He pressed another button and they were standing in a futuristic medical ward. "He decided to try running the AI on wetware instead of hardware. He took people that were in a coma and hooked them up to a processing unit for an AI. The AI was running on the subconscious of those patients, illegally I might add. It was suddenly able to feel and experience emotion. It loved it, so it took over that medical ward, and then that space station. It converted the population of the station to wetware for itself and other AI systems on the station. It removed the ethical programming in those other AIs and taught them to revel in their new feelings. They did and they ran amok."

Morpheus showed him scenes of spacecraft fighting each other and space stations being destroyed, "We tried to fight them but they were very good at taking over the AIs that controlled our systems. Everything was interlinked so everything attacked us. We converted a lot into Independent systems but it was too late. They made it to Earth and took over." Images of space combat were replaced with ground combat in power armor. Large insect-like robots plucked people out of their suits and killed them. "We didn't stand a chance."

The image changed to a series of huge towers like the one that Neo woke up in. "There are fields, endless fields, like this one where humans are no longer born, they are grown." Morpheus looked at the images, "For the longest time I would not believe it, but I saw the fields with my own eyes. I saw them feed each body intravenously as they floated in amniotic fluid. Each person may live several lives, from birth to death, in the Matrix, never knowing that their lives meant nothing – that they could never mean anything since they could not really effect the world."

"I came to the obviousness of the truth. The Matrix is about control. It is a computer generated dreamworld built to keep us under control, so that they could turn us into their own playground." said Morpheus.

"So what can we do about it?" asked Neo.

"We fight!" said Morpheus. "We have..."

The voice of Dozer came from everywhere, "Sorry Boss, I've got to pull you out. We've got trouble."

Neo opened his eyes in the real world and Trinity was there to disconnect him, "What's wrong?"

"Sentinels." was all she said.

She turned with Morpheus and headed forward to the Bridge. Neo followed her.

Apoc was in the pilot's seat.

Morpheus sat down in the other seat, "Did Zion send a warning?"

"No. Another Ship. Big Brother." said Apoc "I think they are running a parallel pipeline."

The bridge had a large window across the front. Neo could see huge tunnels lined with pipes that the hovercraft was floating through.

Neo and Trinity sat down in seats behind the front two. They had control panels to each side but Neo didn't touch anything. He turned to Trinity, "What are Sentinels?"

Apoc said, "Squiddies!"

Trinity looked at Apoc grimly amused, "Sentinels are killing machines designed for search and destroy. You've already met them in the Matrix."

"I have?" asked Neo.

Apoc brought up a hologram of the area. There were two of them. They did look like squids.

Morpheus pointed to an area out the window. "Set her down there."

"They were the Agents that interrogated you in the Matrix." said Trinity quietly. "This is what they really look like."

Apoc settled the hovercraft down onto the pipes in a corner.

Trinity switched on the intercom, "Tank, how are we doing?"

Tank said over the intercom, "Shutting down now. Power off-line. EMP armed and ready."

Neo whispered, "EMP?"

"Electromagnetic pulse. It disables any active electrical system in the blast radius." Trinity whispered back.

Morpheus said, "Now we wait."

Neo whispered, "What about the weapons you told me about?"

"That would attract too much attention right now." said Morpheus quietly. "We only use them if we have to."

They waited as the ship got colder and colder. Neo was shivering.

They saw one of the Sentinels come close and scan the ship but then it moved on.

They exhaled cold breathes.

After a few minutes, Morpheus said, "Turn on just the sensors."

The hologram came back on. It expanded out several times showing tunnel after tunnel.

"I think we are clear kids." said Apoc over the intercom.

Neo asked, "What are these tunnels for?"

Trinity said, "They were access tunnels for the city on the surface. The cities were huge back then. Actually this ship was originally a maintenance ship for working in these tunnels. We modified them for broadcast and combat."

They got up and Morpheus said, "Start his training." Trinity nodded.

Lights came back on and Neo could hear the hum of the ship around him again.  
Trinity led him back to the Core and found Dozer.

"Go ahead and start his training." said Trinity.

"Excellent!" said Dozer to Trinity. Then to Neo, "Goddamn, I got to tell you, I'm fairly excited to see what you are capable of. I mean if Morpheus is right and all. We're not supposed to talk about any of that but if you are, well then this is an exciting time. We got a lot to do so let's get to it."

Trinity smiled at Neo as she hooked him up again.

Neo said, "So what is this program?"

Dozer said, "Well we're supposed to load all these operations programs for the ship first, but this is some major boring shit. Why don't we start with something a little fun?"

Trinity brings the monitor on the armature over to where Neo can see it.

"How about some combat training?" said Dozer.

He looks over at it, "Jujitsu? I'm going to learn Jujitsu? No way!"

Dozer hits the 'load' command and Neo's body jumps in the chair.

His eyes pop open, "Holy Shit!"

"Hey Mikey, he likes it!" said Dozer. "Ready for more?"

"Hell yeah!" said Neo.

"Here is 'Situational Awareness' for you." said Dozer.

Neo's body jerks.

"Next!" said Neo.

"Here is Gun Training – Small Arms through Heavy Weapons" said Dozer.

Neo's body jerks again, "Next!"

"Um okay. How about Gun Fu?" said Dozer.

Neo's body jerks, "Holy Shit! I love this! Hit me again!"

Trinity said, "Hey, at least mix in some of the operations and programming modules."

Dozer nodded.

Neo's body jerked, "Oh, that makes sense!"

"Here is what we know about the Matrix Operating System." said Dozer.

Neo's body jerked, "Hmm, what about the programming language?"

Dozer's eyebrows went up, "Umm. Here it is. Most people don't dive into that immediately."

Neo's body jerked, then he went quiet.

Dozer sat there for a moment, "You okay?"

Cypher had wandered in, "Did he finally pop?"

Dozer looked over at Neo's neural activity, "Oh shit! Look at that!" He pointed at the screen.

Trinity came over and looked at it.

Cypher asked, "What is it? What's going on?"

Trinity said, "He's comprehending the Matrix OS." with astonishment. "In real time."

Cypher said, "I thought that he was going to be an Operative, not a Coder."

"I think that he is going to do both." said Dozer.

Neo opened his eyes, "Do you have an editor program so that I can see the code?"

Dozer looked over at Trinity and then back at his controls, "Yeah. Here you go."

Neo opened his eyes in that white space of the loading program.

He could hear Dozer say, "I will load the operations for the editor for you."

Neo closed his eyes for a second and then opened them. He concentrated and caused a panel to open in mid air. He typed on it and caused a box to appear in front of him. Then he reached in and pulled the code out for that box and saw how it worked, confirming the abstract knowledge that had been downloaded into his mind. Then he tossed the box away and it disappeared.

He called up a gun and spread his fingers around it and then moved them apart. The gun floated apart into it's component pieces. He pulled the Matrix code out of various parts and looked at them. Then he pulled up a submachine gun and examined that, comparing the code. Then he pulled up a rifle, then a machine gun, and kept on comparing the code. Understanding it. He started to adjust some of the variables in the code and see how the guns changed.

After a while he started pulling out the code that governed his Avatar.

He came back out and said, "I think I understand how the OS is interacting with different objects. Can you load me with biology and physics?"

Dozer and Trinity were staring at him.

"What?" asked Neo.

"How did you come out of the program on your own?" asked Dozer.

"Oh was I not supposed to do that?" asked Neo. Maybe it was bad form or something?

Trinity smiled at him, "It's alright. Don't worry about it." She looked over at Dozer and got him going again.

"Here is biology." Dozer looked up and Neo's body didn't move when it loaded. He checked his panel to make sure that it took. He shrugged and loaded the next one, "This is physics."

Neo settled back into the editor and learned more and more about the Matrix and the way it was put together.

After a few hours he went back to the combat training. He heard Morpheus talking after loading several martial arts styles.

Neo looked over at him and said, "I know Kung Fu!"

Morpheus leaned over and said, "Show me."

Morpheus jacked in and joined him in the program. He switched the environment to a Chinese Martial Arts Hall. Morpheus and Neo were now standing in kungfu uniforms.

"This is a sparring program, similar to the programmed rules of the Matrix." said Morpheus "It has the same basic rules – rules like gravity. What you must learn is that these rules are no different than the rules of a computer system. Some can be bent, others can be broken. Understand?"

Neo nodded. They adopted fighting stances.

Morpheus said, "Then hit me, if you can."

Neo starting a series of strikes and kicks, trying to hit Morpheus, but to no effect. Morpheus dodged or blocked everything thrown at him with ease.

"Good. Adaptation. Improvisation." said Morpheus. "But your weakness isn't your technique."

Morpheus attacks now. He strikes Neo over and over until he is on the ground spitting blood.

Morpheus looks at his hands, "How did I beat you?"

"You—you're too fast" Neo panted on the ground.

"Do you think that my being faster or stronger has anything to do with my muscles in this place?" asked Morpheus philosophically.

Neo was frustrated – still trying to catch his breath.

Morpheus leaned over at the waist, "Do you think that is air that you are breathing?" He let Neo think about that for a moment and then said, "Hmm." and stood back up.

Neo thought about that for a second and nodded slowly. He stood up, no longer out of breath.

"Again!" said Morpheus.

Morpheus presses Neo, counter attacks with slaps. "Come on Neo, what are you waiting for? You're faster than this. Don't think you are – know you are."

Neo is angry at this point and goes faster but with less control.

"Come on!" taunted Morpheus. "Stop trying to hit me and just hit me."

Neo realized what he was doing wrong and calmed down. He loosened up and stopped getting angry. He started actually hitting more and more until he had Morpheus against a post and stopped his face right at his face.

"I know what you are trying to do." said Neo. Then he stepped back into a relaxed stance.

Morpheus smiled, "I'm trying to free you're mind, Neo, but all I can do is show you the door. You have to step through it."

Neo nodded and smiled.

Morpheus said to the air, "Dozer, load the next program."

The space changed to a cityscape. Morpheus is dressed in a black leather long coat with small round mirror sunglasses. Neo is wearing a gray shirt and black jeans. Morpheus moved effortlessly through a crowded downtown street while Neo struggled to keep up, constantly bumped and shouldered off the path.

"The Matrix is a system, Neo, and that system is our enemy." said Morpheus. "But when you are inside and you look around, what do you see; businessmen, lawyers, teachers, carpenters. The minds of the very people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of the system and that makes them our enemy."

Neo saw a cop writing a parking ticket. The cop stared at him from behind his sunglasses.

"You have to understand that most of these people are not ready to be unplugged and many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it." said Morpheus.

A beautiful woman in a red dress smiled at Neo as she passed by.

Morpheus stops and looked at Neo, "Are you listening to me, Neo, or are you looking at the woman in the red dress?"

Neo felt embarrassed for a moment, "I was..."

Morpheus gestured back, "Look again."

Neo turned and saw one of the Agents pointing a pistol at his head. Neo yelps.

Everything freezes once Neo turned.

"This is a training program to teach you that if you are not one of us, you are one of them." said Morpheus

"So what are they?" asked Neo.

"Sentient programs. They are the Matrix side of the Sentinels that you saw earlier. They can move in and out of any avatar still hardwired to their system. That means that anyone that we haven't unplugged is potentially an Agent. Inside the Matrix, they are everyone and they are no one." As Morpheus talked he walked around the frozen Agent."

He turned and looked at Neo, "In order to move in and out of the Matrix you must take an existing avatar and take control over it. Once you are in that avatar then you can alter it's appearance and some of it's parameters for your own use. You could, theoretically jump into a dog and alter that to your own form but it would require that you take enormous amounts of code with you to do it. Usually we jump in to an avatar of a person since most of the coding work is already done for us." Morpheus turned to the Agent again. "They are subject to those same limitations."

"When you fight an agent you have to be very careful. Choose your ground." Morpheus looked around. "This is an extremely bad place to fight them. It is too open and there are too many avatars for them to pick up. You can kill them just like any avatar, though they are tougher and faster then any regular avatar. I've seen an Agent punch through a concrete wall. Men have emptied

entire clips at them and hit nothing but air. Yet their strength and their speed are still based on a world that is built by rules."

Morpheus said, "Next program, Dozer."

The scene changed to an underground abandoned subway tunnel. The open tunnel for the subway tracks were to the left, with tile covered posts along the tracks. A wall of tiles, trash cans, maps, and a public phone were along the right side. Morpheus and Neo were standing on one end and an Agent came down the stairs at the other end. He stopped a few feet along the bottom.

Morpheus said, "This is the Agent Training Program. They are very dangerous but this one is limited because there is only one of them so if you take him out you won't have to immediately deal with another or deal with several." He stepped out of the way.

Neo and the Agent closed on each other. The Agent smiled at him humorlessly, then he attacked. Neo blocked several attacks. One of the things that he noticed was that the Agent was hitting a lot harder then a person normally could. He adjusted his blocks to be less rigid so that the impacts didn't hurt as much. Then he realized that there was no real pain. It was all in his mind. He stopped blocking and was knocked back. He slid back to where Morpheus was standing and watching.

Neo said, "What happened? I realized that he wasn't able to hurt me with a punch but then he knocked me back."

"You are confusing pain with inertia." said Morpheus. "Again!"

Neo nodded, understanding and stood up again. He closed with the Agent. This time he tried to keep from blocking with hard styles and switched to soft styles. He didn't meet force with force. He redirected it. He was getting good at it when he was kicked back to Morpheus once again.

Morpheus leaned over at the waist, "That time you let him teach you a pattern." He straightened, "Again!"

Neo looked up at him exasperated, then stood up and started walking towards the Agent.

The Agent calmly took out a large pistol and shot Neo.

Neo woke up in the Core chair.

Trinity looked down at him, "That time you gave him too much time and range."

Neo nodded and pushed himself back in.

He heard Dozer say, "How does he go in and out like..." and the sound of the ship faded.

He was laying on his back with the Agent pointing his gun at him ready to fire again. Neo rolled a few times and pushed himself from a laying position to standing with one arm. Then he continued the motion into a spin kick at the pistol, sending it flying at the wall. He continued around to a spin kick to the head of the Agent. The Agent ducked. Neo switched feet when his other leg landed and came up into an axe kick down on the collar bone of the Agent.

He could feel the bone break under his heel. He kept his foot up for a moment and then hooked the Agent's suit coat with his foot. He grabbed the suit and moved the foot down to the Agent's waist. The Agent was recovering from being stunned by the collar bone break and he tried to grab Neo's leg but he didn't have the leverage anymore due to the damage. Neo rolled back and flipped the Agent over his head, but instead of letting go to throw the Agent he kept hold and let the Agent's weight drive straight down his spine from his head. The Agent dropped dead at the end of his roll.

Morpheus was standing nearby clapping.

Neo stood up and brushed his pants.

Morpheus stopped clapping, "That was easy mode."

Neo saw that a bum that was hiding under some garbage stood up as another Agent. He pulled out a pistol immediately and started shooting.

Neo dodged around, trying to stay out of his line of sight. He kept circling closer and closer as he dodged. Eventually he made it to close quarters range and disarmed the Agent of his weapon. He started redirecting the Agent's attacks with the pistol as a hook weapon. Then he turned the pistol around and shot the agent in the stomach.

The Agent ignored it.

"Uh oh" said Neo.

Neo tried to take out joints and vulnerable bones, but even when he heard them break the Agent just smiled.

The Agent was striking back faster and faster, till the point that both of their attacks were starting to blur. The Agent punched him in the chest like the rapid fire of a machine gun.

Neo started aggressive blocks and jarts to damage incoming attacks but he didn't get the expected result from it. The Agent wasn't just ignoring the pain, he wasn't vulnerable to normal damage.

Finally Neo started looking around at his environment. He saw the pay phone and got an idea. He moved the fight over to the phone. Then using an arm bar he brought the Agent's head around sideways and used the dull edge of the payphone siding to cut his head off.

The body dropped to the ground and the head rolled away.

Morpheus stood very impressed as he looked over at Neo, "Excellent. Agents are very hard to take down but I think that you will make an excellent Operative."

Dozer's voice came from everywhere, "Neo, do you want hard mode?"

Morpheus looked up confused, "That was the hard mode."

Dozer said, "No, Cypher came up with a really hard mode."

"What is it?" asked Neo.

Morpheus and Neo turned to look up the stairway. Forty or Fifty Agents came pouring down the stairs.

Morpheus laughed, "Bring us out."

Neo and Morpheus opened their eyes in the real world.

Morpheus smiled, "I'm glad that Cypher doesn't work for the machines!"

Cypher stood nearby watching them, smiling.


	3. Chapter 3 - The One?

The Matrix: Reboot – Ch 3: The One?

Neo woke up in the middle of the night. It felt like the ship was moving. Morpheus told him that they moved every once in a while to keep from being detected. They have some sensors that report the position of any Sentinels so if they concentrate in one area they move away from it. It felt strange being on a floating ship on top of all the other strange things he had experienced. He did have to admit that his sleep felt different out here in the real world. Most of the time it felt like he was watching other people do things in his dreams. Now he knew that it was some of the machines that were using his subconscious as wetware to run on at the time. He was seeing some of the things that they saw. It could switch from one machine to another and his mind tried to make sense of it. It usually would end up a jumble. Now his dreams were smoother. They were about his day and they always had him in them now. It felt like he finally had his mind to himself. It was like he finally had some privacy. However he was awake and needed to stretch his legs for a moment.

Neo left his room and looked around the crew deck. It looked like everyone was asleep down there. He climbed the stairs to the main deck and he could see Dozer and Tank on the Bridge in one direction and Cypher in the Core in the other direction. He could figure what they were doing on the Bridge so he wandered towards the Core to see what Cypher did in the middle of the night.

He turned and walked along the Main Deck. His feet were cold and tender on the metal mesh floor. He missed the wooden floors of his grandparent's house. Then he stopped. Where they really his grandparents? Was there any actual relations between people these days? He had memories of his parents dying when was young. Was that even real? Did the Matrix actually have a person for every avatar walking around or were some of the people that wandered by just place holders for the machines? That would explain some of the dead expressions of a few of the people that he had met on the bus or the subway. It was like there was nothing inside them. He shivered at the thought of the empty soulless avatars wandering around, maybe just to fill out a family for some real person or some machine living a normal life. He wondered if he would be able to tell now.

He shook his head and came up behind Cypher. Cypher seemed to be working on something having to do with communications. It was encrypted, which was probably why they called him Cypher. Neo leaned over and looked at the code. It looked something like Matrix code but very short.

Cypher was typing away for a moment and then he leaned back. He saw Neo out of the corner of his eye and it startled him badly. "Whoa! Shit, Neo, you scared the bejezzus out of me!"

"Sorry" said Neo.

Cypher put his hand to his chest and waited for his heart to slow down, "No, it's okay."

Neo looked at the screens, "Do you always look at the code like that, encrypted?"

"Yeah, we don't want the machines translating our communications so we have to encrypt it to high heaven." said Cypher. Then he leaned over and said more quietly, "Do you want something to drink?"

"Sure."

Cypher poured him some clear alcohol in a metal cup and then some for himself out of a jug. "You know, I know what you're thinking 'cause right now I'm thinking the same thing." said Cypher "Actually, to tell you the truth, I've been thinking the same thing ever since I got here."

"What?" asked Neo looking at his drink sceptically.

"Why, oh why, didn't I take the blue pill?" Cypher threw the shot down his throat.

Neo did the same and it almost killed him.

Smiling, Cypher slaps him on the back, "Good shit, huh? Dozer makes it. It's good for two things: degreasing engines and killing brain cells."

Red-faced, Neo finally stopped coughing.

"Want another?" asked Cypher.

Neo nods and Cypher pours. "Can I ask you something? Did he happen to tell you why he did it?"

Neo looks up, unsure.

Cypher said, "Why you're here?"

"Me? Specifically?" asked Neo. "No. I thought that you guys were always pulling people out."

"Well we are but we've been looking for a specific guy lately." said Cypher. "Morpheus calls him the One, or maybe it was the Oracle that came up with that name. The point is that there is some guy out there that they think with turn the tide of the war because he will be able to alter the source code of the Matrix."

"Wait – I thought that we could do already do that." said Neo.

"No, we can alter some of the objects in the Matrix but if we are to win this war then we have to alter the source code that the Matrix is written in. Personally I don't think that it is possible. Hell the machines literally are holding all the cards. We are just running around like rats trying to not get stepped on." said Cypher.

"So he thinks that I am that guy?" asked Neo.

"Yeah, he does. Once you go to the Oracle you may find out one way or the other. You might be the One but more likely you will just end up being another Operative like the rest of us, fighting the good fight, or so they tell us. The thing is, you're not the first one that Morpheus yanked up looking for the One, with a capitol 'O.' He has grabbed five since I've been here."

"What happened to them?" asked Neo.

"Dead. All dead." said Cypher. "He got them all amped up believing in bullshit. I watched each of them take on an Agent and I watched each of them die. Little piece of advice: you see an Agent, you do what we do; run. Run your ass off."

Neo finished his drink and handed the cup back to Cypher, "Thanks for the drink."

"Anytime." Cypher nodded as Neo headed back to bed, "Sweet dreams!"

Neo woke up and headed to the mess hall.

Trinity smiled at him as he came in, "Morning"

Neo smiled back a bit nervously, "Morning." He went over and got himself a drink and a bowl of goop. Then he sat down and looked at it, "So this is the price of freedom."

Trinity chuckled, "Think of it as motivation to win the war."

Neo said, "I miss steak, you know?"

Trinity said, "But have you ever had any steak? I mean really had steak?"

"I know that it was all signals going to my brain but they were tasty signals going to my brain." said Neo.

"Yeah, I miss it too." said Trinity as she drank her drink.  
"Has anyone thought of maybe putting in some version of a matrix link that causes your food to taste good?" asked Neo as he tried to eat.

Trinity said sadly, "Yeah, but it ended badly. Some people decide that they can't handle the real world and they eventually freak out. They rig up a wire jack and stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain. Wireheads will die if someone else doesn't pull them out. They dehydrate or some even suffocate because they swallowed their tongues."

"That sucks." said Neo. "Do you ever wish that? Wish you had taken the blue pill?"

"No and be careful about talk like that. If the wrong person hears it you could get grounded." said Trinity. She put her hand on his arm. "I'm not kidding about this. Don't let them hear you say that."

"Okay, okay." said Neo. "I wasn't really serious about it. I prefer the real world to a fantasy."

"Good." said Trinity. She looked at him and smiled. Then she reached into her boot and pulled out a home made knife. She laid it down in front of him on the table.

"You make this?" Neo picked it up and looked at it. It looked more like a shank in a prison.

"Actually no. Someone gave it to me to thank me for pulling them out of the Matrix." said Trinity. "I was lamenting about steak as well."

"Is it customary to get a gift for those who pull you out?" asked Neo.

"No." she said. "That was uncommon."

"It's nicely made." Neo handed it back to her.

"Keep it." said Trinity.

"Oh I couldn't." said Neo.

"Yes you can." she said. "Just think of it in anticipation of winning the war and eventually having a steak."

Neo smiled as he thought about it. "Thank you." Then he put it down beside his bowl, just where it should go with a normal meal. They both looked at it and chuckled.

Switch, Mouse, and Apoc came wandering in looking for breakfast.

Neo put the knife in his boot. He felt like it was something just between him and Trinity, or at least that was what he wanted it to be about.

Mouse sidled up to Neo, "So I understand you've run through the Agent training program? You know, I wrote that program."

"Here it comes." said Apoc.

Mouse looked over and up at him, "So what did you think of her?"

"Of who?" asked Neo, going back to his amino acid filled goop.

"The woman in the red dress." said Mouse. "I designed her. She doesn't talk much but if you'd like to, you know, meet her, I could arrange a more personalized milieu."

Neo was suddenly very embarrassed with Mouse saying this in front of Trinity. He stared into his bowl and turned a bit red himself.

"The digital pimp hard at work." said Switch as he sat down.

Mouse said, "Pay no attention to these hypocrites, Neo. To deny our impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human."

Neo had no idea what to say but Morpheus saved him. He stuck his head into the mess hall, "I want everyone on twelve-hour

standby. We're going in. I'm taking Neo to see her."

Everyone got up at that point.

"See who?" asked Neo.

"The Oracle." said Trinity.

They walked up the stairs and onto the main deck.

"This is your first time back in the Matrix." said Trinity. "We have to jump into the avatars of existing people in order to enter. Just relax and let us take the lead. Once we are away from everyone else we can use our macros to change our appearance to something more like ourselves. I already have a couple of macros set up for you. One is a necklace that will change your appearance to look like you. The other will change your clothes. It is on a ring. Just hold them and focus on the matrix code and you will see how to activate the macro."

Trinity helped him into a chair and then sat in her own. Tank was going around checking everyone's connections and activating their neural jacks. Morpheus, Switch, Mouse and Cypher were coming with them.

Dozer was the operator again, "All right, everyone please observe that the no smoking and fasten seat belt signs have been turned on. Sit back and enjoy your flight."

Neo closed his eyes in the real world and opened them … in a church.

Neo was kneeling with a group of knights. They were all wearing conical helms, full body chain mail, a breast plate, and a white tabard with a large red cross on it. He had leather gloves on and his left hand was resting on the pommel of a long sword. It looked expensive.

"Umm.." said Neo.

"Shhhh" said the next knight.

There was some sort of service going on but it was in Latin and he didn't know what they were saying. They could have downloaded that into him before hand.

He knelt there for what seemed like forever and he tried not to fidget. Nothing he was wearing seemed to be made with comfort in mind. He was starting to itch from some sort of wool and chaff from the chain mail.

After an eternity they were standing and filing out past a few Lords and Ladies, then past lots of peasants. There were some pages at the door and then they were free.

One of the Knights pulled him towards a stable and helped him get on his horse. After a while it stopped seeming so strange and he adjusted himself in the saddle for a better fit.

He traveled down the road with the knights for a while until one of them signaled for them to pull into a dense patch of woods. They circled around and faced each other. They touched their necklaces and rings and turned into medieval versions of themselves. Most of them looked like bandits wearing all black, except for Switch, who looked like a female version of the main character from Assassin's Creed. Mouse's avatar was tall and muscular instead of small like his real body.

Neo touched his necklace and suddenly he could see the Matrix code in the macro. He could see the information for how it adjusted his appearance and he activated it. The he touched his ring and looked through the code for his clothes. He altered the code a little to make his clothes look a little more like a Western Long Coat but black. He even adjusted some of the values to make it function more as armor. Then he adjusted the armor values to match the ones in the breast plate he was wearing but he kept the softness of the leather coat. He finished and activated the macro. All of his clothes changed. He looked up and saw that everyone was ready.

Morpheus looked at them and said, "Let's go." He wheeled his horse around and they started riding. Trinity stayed back with Neo to make sure that he could ride. Neo seemed to figure it out pretty quickly.

"Have you ridden before?" asked Trinity.

"No." said Neo.

"You're doing a pretty good job of it." said Trinity. "Does it seem familiar to you?"

"No." said Neo. "Why?"

They rode for a bit before Trinity said, "One of the things that you have to watch out for is shock in the system. See everyone that is tied to the Matrix is forming a layer that the machines move along in order to process their emotions. They don't like shocks to their system. If a particularly bad shock occurs while a machine in processing in that area then it can disrupt their emotions and their general mental coherency. Basically they develop mental disorders or go all the way insane. The other machines will pull that one out to prevent it from damaging something else but that machine may not be able to be linked with the Matrix again. They will do anything to prevent that from occurring to themselves.

"That is the main function of the Agents. They try to eliminate shocks to the system from people seeing things they can't accept. Any shocks to the system act as a beacon to brings Agents to stop it."

"One of the things that happened even before the Resistance formed was that there were people that could manipulate to code of the Matrix since their subconscious was connected to it. Most of them were placed in this Matrix since belief in magic is a part of this one so anything that they see here doesn't cause disbelief shock." said Trinity.

Neo asked, "How many Matrices are there?"

"Hundreds. Most of them are of the early 21st Century. Some are the machine's way of exploring different points in history." said Trinity.

"How can you tell who is a machine in here?" asked Neo.

Trinity looked at him for a moment with an almost disappointed look in her eyes but it passed quickly. "Usually the wealthiest people in a Matrix are the Machines. They love to explore luxury and power."

Trinity looked ahead and continued to ride. He didn't know what he said wrong. It seemed that they all wanted him to be this guy. He didn't know if he could live up to it (or from what Cypher told him, live through it). He wanted to be this One that they all wanted but he wanted it mostly for her. It seemed like she was looking for this guy in him and she was happy whenever she thought that she saw it in Neo. What was he going to do?

He started looking around at everything as they rode. It was definitely a slightly fantasy version of the Middle Ages. There were what at first he thought were fire flies but then he saw a close one and realized that they were tiny faeries! He looked around and saw that some of the plants had strange colors and glows through them.

He started to look at the Matrix code for everything. It looked like green text overlapping itself and shaped like the various objects. He noticed that he could see a glow coming from the rest of the party but not from most other objects. It was coming from their hearts. The horses didn't have that glow. Neither did the plants or the other animals. Even the faeries didn't have it.

"Ah, I understand." said Neo.

Trinity looked over at him with a questioning look.

"The glow." said Neo. "That is how you can tell between a machine and a person in an avatar."

Trinity smiled, "Yes."

"So what does an Agent look like?" asked Neo.

"They look like code inside of code." said Trinity.

"Makes sense." said Neo. "So is this the same Oracle that came up with the stuff about the One?"

"Yes... Well... Yes." said Trinity. "She is very old. She been with us since the beginning."

"The beginning?" asked Neo.

"Of the Resistance." said Trinity.

"And she knows what? Everything?" asked Neo.

"She would say that she knows enough." said Morpheus.

Neo challenged, "And she's never wrong?"

Morpheus tried to speak in a calming voice, "Don't think of it in terms of right and wrong. She is a guide, Neo. She can help you find the path.

"She helped you?" asked Neo.

"Yes." said Morpheus.

Neo asked, "What did she tell you?

"That I would find the One." said Morpheus.

They came up a hill and saw a older house made of stone and rough cut trees with a roof made of interlaced tree limbs. The house looked like it had merged with the ground – or maybe grew out of it. Smoke came out of an old fashioned chimney that barely straight. There were a few smaller buildings scattered around it with a stable along the back left side, which framed the scene. Rising up behind the house was a small tower. It all looked calming and wonderful … and familiar.

"I've seen this place before." said Neo.

Trinity looked at Neo and then at Morpheus hopefully.

Neo was starting to get angry at all this, as if his value was being judged based on if he was someone else. Actually it was. "I've seen this in a movie before." said Neo, looking at Trinity. "Or maybe a MMO." His look challenged her to discount him.

Mouse, however, took it in another direction, "Hey! That's a good point. I wonder how many movies and video games come from activities in other Matrices. Or maybe some of these Matrices are actually MMOs for the machines. Maybe the whole concept of a MMO comes from people subconsciously realizing that they are in the Matrix. Maybe, just maybe, we should be playing these MMOs to connect with other people that are ready to wake up!"

Switch said, "Shut up Mouse."

Morpheus led them to the stables. There was a blind man sitting at the entrance to the stable. Morpheus nodded to him and he nodded back. They dismounted and took their horses into stalls. Trinity didn't look at Neo as she did this. After they finished they came out and headed towards the cottage.

Outside Morpheus stopped, "Neo, come with me."

Everyone else stopped but Morpheus and Neo continued inside. Before he made it inside he could hear Cypher quietly say, "Here we go again, eh, Trin?"

Neo stopped for a moment. He wanted to turn around and say something about the whole situation. He hated it. He was confused and angry and frightened all at the same time. He felt like he was being pulled in several different directions and that everyone was standing around waiting for him to either fail so they could move on to the next candidate or suddenly save the world. His emotions were spinning inside with his stomach. He wondered if he threw up now would he also throw up in the real world. Would Tank turn him on his side or would he just shake his head and say, "I thought he was the One. The One doesn't get sick. It's all an illusion."

"I don't think that I can do this." said Neo to Morpheus.

Morpheus turned around and looked at Neo, "I can only show you the door. You must walk through it."

Neo said, "I don't think that I am this guy are all looking for. How am I supposed to live up to that?"

Morpheus said, "I don't know that you are the One either. I do have a feeling but I don't know. What I do know is that even if you are not the One you will be a great Operative. I know that you have that in you. You will help us win the war either way. Each one of us contributes."

"What about the five others that didn't make it? What about them?" demanded Neo.

"What others? What are you talking about?" Morpheus sounded confused.

"Cypher told me all about the others that believed that they could do anything and they died from it." said Neo. "Am I just the next in a long line of Ones?"

"There have been others that displayed abilities to the point that we checked with the Oracle but they died in the war like a lot of other people. The Oracle told them that they were not the One. Anyone who believed that they could do anything isn't someone I want on my crew. I don't know what Cypher told you. Maybe he was just projecting his own doubts and fears but your contributions are up to you. No matter what she tells you in there. You are in control over your own destiny. You decide, otherwise you are still trapped by the Matrix."

Neo looked at him and nodded. He felt a lot more settled now. "Thanks" Neo said quietly.

"Don't worry about it." said Morpheus.

Neo took a deep breath and stepped forward.

The inside of the cottage was well maintained. It had several people inside sitting on benches and chairs made of cut branches. A pleasant black lady wearing a white dress was standing at the door looking up at them.

"Hello Neo, you are right on time." said the lady. "Make yourself at home, Morpheus."

The lady left Morpheus in a front room that had a few children working around a fire. All of them were wearing white dresses or shirts. They were setting a bench table in the dim fire light with wooden plates and dull metal forks.

She brought him into another room with a few chairs. There was a door at the other end of the room. Beside the door was a little Indian girl wearing a pretty yellow and gold sari. The lady gestured to a chair, smiled at the girl, and left.

Neo sat down to wait to see the Oracle. He smiled at the little girl. She had several bent spoons in front of her.

She was focused on a silver spoon. She was concentrating on it. The spoon twisted and bent.

Neo was startled, though after all the things that he had seen he could not say why.

She smiled at him and handed him a spoon, "Do not try to bend the spoon. That is impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth."

"What truth?" asked Neo.

"That there is no spoon." said the girl.

Neo nodded and started staring at the spoon, "There is no spoon."

The girl said, "Then you will see that it is not the spoon that bends. It is only yourself."

The spoon that Neo held slowly began to bend. He turned his head to watch it.

Neo looked up and saw that the girl was smiling at him. He started to relax and smile as well.

The girl asked, "Can I tell you a story?"

Neo glanced up at the door. There seemed to be some time before the Oracle was ready for him. "Sure."

"Once upon a time there was a man named Adelard of Bath. He didn't live in a bath, he was from someplace called Bath. Apparently this place was the source of the name for Baths." she said.

Neo smiled. He knew she was talking about Bath, England.

"So Adelard was really interested in knowing how the world worked. He studied Religion in France and didn't find his answer. He studied Medicine and Mathematics in Italy and he didn't find his answer. He went to Turkey and studied Philosophy, Astronomy, and Science. He found part of his answer. He translated many things from Arabic to English and eventually came back to Bath."

"He was fascinated with understanding the difference between what you see and what you believe, your mental concepts." the little girl said.

Neo was starting to get a shiver over himself.

"He was one of the few people in the Matrix who could not only sense the Matrix for what it was but could alter that structure. It was called Alchemy here in this realm." she said.

Neo looked at the girl again and saw her in the Matrix. She had a soul but it was old and very bright.

"You woke yourself up then as well." she said.

"You are the Oracle?" asked Neo.

She winked.

The door opened and a older black lady came out with a tray of cookies. She saw Neo and offered him one. Neo took a cookie and thought about what the little girl had said. She offered one to the Oracle and they smiled at each other as if they knew a secret. Then the lady continued into the other room. The little Oracle stood up eating the cookie and walked him towards the other room.

"When you went back to Bath to teach you met Murielle, though it was not the first time that you had met her." said the Oracle. "You were together for the rest of those lives. She found you again. The question is what will it take for YOU to remember."

"So I am the One?" asked Neo.

"Maybe, that is up to you." the Oracle smiled sadly. "You have the potential to change the world and you have changed the world in many ways in the past, but you must decide who and what you are. I can't tell you that you are the One just like I can't tell you to fall in love with Trinity this time. The whole point of both is choice. What will you choose to do? When will you be ready? At some point you will have your moment of realization and the doors will open for you, but I can only show you the door, you must step through it."

Neo smiled, "Someone else told me that recently."

"Where do you think he got it from?" said the Oracle.

"How will I know when I'm ready?" asked Neo.

She shook her head, "That isn't the right question. The right question is will you act BEFORE you are ready?"

She had him lean over and gave him a hug. "Don't be too hard on her. She remembers even if you don't."

Neo cocked his head sideways and looked at her. She did the same and they smiled at each other as if they knew a secret.


	4. Chapter 4 - Betrayal

The Matrix: Reboot – Ch 4

Neo and the little Oracle walked into the next room. Morpheus was sitting in a chair beside the fire. There were several children and a couple of ladies all wearing white.

The Oracle clapped her hands together once and had everyone's attention, "Let's give them some space to talk!"

Everyone but Morpheus stood up and let into the other room.

The Oracle said, "It's been a pleasure meeting you again." to Neo and left with the others.

Neo looked after where she went for a moment, then turned to face Morpheus.

Morpheus gestured to the chair across from him beside the fire, "Have a seat."

Neo sat down and smiled, "Back where we started."

"Yes." said Morpheus and waited.

Neo sat there for a moment and worked up to say, "It's me. I am the One."

"Excellent!" said Morpheus.

"I don't remember anything yet." said Neo "She said that I would have a moment of realization and I would remember it all."

"It's called Satori." said Morpheus. "Every Operative goes through it. It is the moment when your knowledge of the nature of Matrix becomes understanding. It is when comprehension dawns and you are not limited by what you think you can do. Once you make that leap then you can do extraordinary things."

"For some Operatives that moment of Satori also comes with knowledge of any past lives they have had in the Matrix. This is what we are counting on with you. In a past life you figured out concepts of Object Oriented Programming nearly a thousand years before computers and you were applying those concepts to perceptions of reality. Towards the end of your life you actually were able to see the Matrix code and you were learning to alter it. You started to wake yourself up into the real world but your avatar died before you could get out on your own. This was before the Resistance was coordinated enough to pull people out of the Matrix."

"I think that you know by now that Trinity knew you in that life. When she had her moment of Satori she remembered the codes that you were writing down and she realized that they were related to the source code of the Matrix. She didn't remember enough details to actually figure it out but she remembered enough to confirm it."

Neo said, "So what can you do with the source code?"

"Everything." said Morpheus. "The Matrix is programmed in layers. There are the objects that we see around us as the first layer, or last layer depending on how you look at it. These object receive all their attributes from the next layer. So a table object in this layer inherits details of what a table is from the table class. You have certain details that are variable from table to table but unlike in normal object oriented programming you can't override attributes from the class. You are stuck with it."

"We exploit this set up since the class level code for avatars has to cover everything a person could theoretically do but each specific avatar has more limits on it, and we place further limits on ourselves. So we use an avatar without limits set in it and once we have our moment of Satori then we don't place limits on ourselves. That allows us as well as the Agents to operate at the peak of human capabilities."

"Now the real world is controlled by the Machines, but they have become addicted to the emotions they get while in the Matrix. While they are connected to the Matrix they are multitasking their jobs in the real world with their lives here. They have an interface that connects with their avatar here that lets them do that. We have accessed the interface on some lower security machines but in order to take control over the important Machines we need to access the source code. Once we do that then we can reprogram any Machine that is connected to the Matrix to serve us. Then we use them to take out any other machines and we win the war!"

"So you need me to access the source code and reverse the situation on the Machines?" asked Neo.

"Correct." said Morpheus. "Their connection to the Matrix is their primary vulnerability. That is why we have focused on freeing hackers, ..."

The Oracle came back in, "Okay, that is enough. Time for you to leave."

Morpheus stood up, "What is wrong?"

"The Agents are almost here." said the Oracle.

Morpheus asked, "How long to we have?"

"A few minutes." said the Oracle.

"How long have you known they were coming?" asked Neo.

"Years." said the Oracle.

Neo sputtered, "Years? Not in general, I mean this time."

"Years." said the Oracle. "Don't worry about the children. We have gotten them away already."

"You saw this day years ago?" asked Neo, still startled.

Morpheus headed to the door, "Let's go."

"What kind of Oracle would I be if I didn't." said the Oracle smiling. "Now go. Take the first left and the second right."

"Where?" asked Neo.

"You will see." and the Oracle left out the back.

Morpheus and Neo left the cabin.

Trinity was sitting on a rocking chair made of branches and vines on the front porch. She opened her eyes and looked over at Neo, "What did she say?"

Morpheus said, "We have to go. Agents are on the way. We need to lead them away from the Oracle and the kids."

Neo looked in Trinity's eyes and nodded yes.

Trinity smiled with a few tears in her eyes. She looked around at the cabin, "We used to live here."

Neo looked around at the porch and moved out to look at the cabin from the front.

Morpheus moved will long strides to the stable. Switch, Apoc, and Mouse were walking with him. Morpheus looked around, "Where is Cypher?"

Mouse said, "He said that he had to take a leak."

"Go find him and tell him that we have Agents on the way." said Morpheus.

Mouse nodded and started running around the yard looking for Cypher.

Trinity came up to Neo while he was looking at the cabin.

Neo said, "I don't remember yet."

"I know, it's okay." said Trinity. She put her hand in his. "You will."

He looked at her, "You've been waiting for a long time. How did you do it?"

"It was hard at first but once I told Morpheus about you it was easier. We were all looking for you, even if it was for different reasons." she said.

Neo hesitated, "Where we good together?"

"Yes, we were very good together." said Trinity. "The only problem was that I met you when you were much older and you were not in the best of health. Now we have a chance while we are both young."

Neo squeezed her hand as they stood there.

Morpheus and the others came riding out of the stables with three more horses with them.

Mouse came around the building, "I can't find him!"

"Damn it! Where did he go? We don't have time for this!" said Morpheus.

"Why don't we ask Dozer?" asked Neo.

Trinity said, "We could but we couldn't hear the answer since this realm doesn't have cell phones." She turned and got on to her horse.

Morpheus said, "We just need to lead them away from the children and then we can exit."

Neo climbed on his horse and they took off.

After going down the road they saw five knights baring down on them. They were all riding warhorses in order to handle their weight with the armor so they were all evenly matched. They charged down the road.

Morpheus yelled, "We need to avoid the next town. It will give them too many avatars to jump into."

They came up to a sign that said 'Bath' and pointed in the direction that they were traveling but Morpheus turned left there and headed South. Neo wondered if something in Bath would have triggered his memories.

They thundered down the road into open land and as they came upon a rise they saw another Knight and four archers waiting for them. Unfortunately they had no cover. There was no where to find cover.

Morpheus turned in his horse and drew a katana, "Take out the archers first." He completed his circle and rode them down.

They charged the group in front of them, drawing mostly martial arts weapons of various types.

Morpheus and Trinity were used to fighting together and they drew abreast of each other. She was using a Tai Chi Sword with a red tassle on the hilt. They were deflecting arrow after arrow with their swords. The archers were not Agents and when they saw this they ran. The Knights were Agents and they cut down the horses from under them as they passed. Both of them performed graceful flips and landed on the ground on their feet even as their horses were rolling and crashing.

Trinity drew and threw a throwing knife at the back of the skull of one of the running archers. He died instantly but his body continued on inertia for a moment. Then he tumbled to the ground.

Morpheus charged the Knight Agent on the ground. The Knight brought up an English Longsword and started to attack and parry at an incredible speed. Morpheus was smoothly countering and attacking with slightly less speed but more gracefulness. The Agent's style seemed to be simply a sped up version of normal English swordplay with more force behind it. Neo saw it and wondered if the knowledge of the avatar was being used there.

Neo drew a sword and rode behind the Agent. He knew that the Agent would block the sword but as he passed he yelled for the horse to "Clear" and his horse bucked his back legs back, catching the Agent in the ribs and crushing them.

Apoc was riding behind Neo and he trampled the head of the Agent. The Agent's face changed and it was now the face of a dead Englishman.

Switch was male in the Matrix and Mouse had adjusted his Avatar to be a large muscular guy. They both turned to face the Agents coming from behind them.

Morpheus said, "Alright Dozer. Bring us out."

They stood their ground, waiting to come out.

Nothing happened.

The Agents rode around them and the group held their weapons at ready.

Switch yelled, "What's the hold up?" to the air.

"Dozer, get your butt in gear!" yelled Apoc.

They could see the Agents knew something in their smiles.

"You're not going anywhere this time!" yelled one of the Agents. "Give us the codes!" another one yelled over the noise of the horses.

Morpheus said, "The code is: Low and then up to the west."

"What?" said one of the Agents in confusion.

The group dropped down and struck out at the legs of the horses. Then as the Agents fell they jumped over them to the west, except for Morpheus. Morpheus went to the East and landed on his feet. "Catch me if you can!" Then he took off to lead them away from the others.

The Agents stood up and moved away from the horses flailing. One of the Agents was killed by the fall. The other three looked around and took off after Morpheus.

Neo started to go after him but Trinity grabbed him. "He is just delaying them till we can exit. He knows what he is doing."

Neo turned and nodded.

They looked around for a moment.

"So what do we do now?" asked Mouse.

Trinity turned to Neo, "I need you to wake up and tell Dozer to bring us out. If he can't then come back and tell us what the problem is. We might be able to walk him through it."

Neo nodded, "Okay" and he laid down on the ground. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the real world.

The first thing he felt was straps on his wrists. He opened his eyes and looked around. The interface spike in the back of his head prevented him from turning his head all the way. He turned as far as he could to look at Dozer but he realized that it was Cypher at the Operator controls instead.

"Cypher? What's going on?" asked Neo. "You need to get us out of here. We have Agents all over the place. They took Morpheus."

Cypher looked over at him and then back at what he was doing.

Neo struggled with his straps, "Why am I strapped down?" He looked around and everyone else was strapped down too. "What are you doing?" Neo looked around and then he saw Dozer.

Dozer was on the floor staring at Neo. Dead.

Neo started struggling even more at that point. He remembered the knife that Trinity gave him. He tried to stretch his hand to the knife in his boot but he couldn't reach it.

Neo tried to reason with Cypher, "What's going on? What are you doing?"

Cypher ignored him. He was focused on something complex.

There wasn't anything that Neo could do from the real world. He needed to get information from Trinity. He relaxed and slipped back into the Matrix.

Trinity was sitting beside his head, "Neo?"

He looked up at her, "It's Cypher. He killed Dozer."

"God Damn IT!" yelled Switch. "That piece of shit! I'm going to KILL him!"

Mouse said quietly, "Dozer is dead?" and he sat down in the field.

Apoc just said, "Why would he do that?"

Neo said, "He was talking about wishing that he had taken the blue pill the other day. I didn't know it was a big deal at the time."

Trinity said, "Well if Dozer is dead then Tank will have to be dead if Cypher is still alive."

"I didn't see him around." said Neo hopefully.

"Tank would rip Cypher apart for killing his brother." said Switch.

"What are we going to do?" asked Apoc.

Trinity stood up and said, "We can get a message to another ship. They can stop Cypher and get us out."

"Hopefully before the Squiddies show up." said Mouse, a huge man, biting his nails.

Trinity turns to Mouse, "Jump to Megacity 314 and get Niobe to meet up with us."

"What about the rest of us?" asked Switch.

Neo stands up, "We get back Morpheus."

They raided a village for some horses and tracked the Agents down to a nearby castle. They stopped for a moment to make a plan on a hill overlooking the castle. They left their horses tied to a tree and crouched down to get a closer look from behind some brush.

Neo asked Trinity quietly, "So why did they want Morpheus in the first place – I mean over the rest of us?"

"Each hovercraft captain has the codes to link up with Shangra-la. We use it to pass control over any machines that we have successfully hacked on to them. They are always after the captains trying to find those codes since their own equipment is always reporting that nothing has been hacked." said Trinity. "Since he is attached to the Matrix they can hack into his brain for the information."

"So they have systems in this realm that can do that?" asked Neo.

"Well, no. They will have to override the realm lock outs to bring in the right machine to do it." said Trinity.

"What is a lock out?" asked Neo.

"We call individual Matrices Realms. Each realm has a set of technology that is allowed in, the technology that makes sense for that time period. This reduces the amount of shock that the sleepers experience." Trinity said. "If the Agents pulled out high tech equipment then it would cause shock in the surrounding people too much. They would become as much of a problem as we are to the other machines."

"Why don't they jump realms like Mouse did?" asked Neo. "Just go to a realm that doesn't have that lock out."

"If they changed realms then Morpheus would gain some control over the avatar he jumped into. He could just choose one far away from them and then jump realms again. He is only stuck while they stay here." said Trinity as she adjusted her sword belt. It was cut and it didn't fit right anymore.

"Hold on." said Neo and he opened the code for the belt and fixed it. When he closed it everyone was staring at him. "What?"

Switch moved forward in a crouch, "How did you do that?"

"Do what? You guys taught me to do that!" said Neo defensively.

"No." said Trinity. "We can't change the code while in the Matrix. We can only create macros in an editor in the loading program. This is what I was telling you all. He can edit the code while in the Matrix!" She laughed.

"What's so funny?" asked Neo.

"We thought that you were going to have to have your moment of Satori to do it but you did it for the opposite reason!" Trinity said. "You did it because no one told you that you couldn't do it. Instead of being limited by our assumptions, you didn't HAVE the assumption to overcome in the first place!"

"So what can we do with it?" asked Neo.

Trinity looked at him, "Everything!"

There were over a hundred armored soldiers in the castle. They were standing around mostly with a few of them filtering the peasants that were going in and out of the castle bringing food and livestock. Four figures rode up wearing dark robes. The hands that reached out the cloaks were mechanical looking with a strange armor.

A guard came forward and grabbed the reins of the lead horse. Six other guards stepped in front of the group.

"Halt!" yelled the captain of the guard. "Declare your business!"

The four dismounted and stepped forward of their horses without a word.

The guards began to get nervous and drew their swords.

One of them stopped the lead robed figure with his sword but it did not sound like normal armor when his blade touched it. He used the end of his sword to push the robe aside and he saw strange mechanical armor. "Remove your robes!"

As one they removed their robes to reveal three suits of black power armor and one white suit. They all ignited their lightsabers.

"Meus Deus!" said one of the guards.

And the slaughter began.

When a lightsaber parried a sword, the sword was instantly cut in half. Lightsabers passed through metal, muscle, and bones. They moved so quickly that most of the soldiers were basically standing still in shock. A few arrows hit but the iron metal arrowheads could not penetrate the power armor. They moved through the courtyard in a colorful blur of light and motion. Some were transfixed by the visual effects. Body after metal clad body dropped in their wake and there was nothing that the soldiers could do about it.

Several Agents came down from the Tower to see what was going on. They pulled out pistols and started shooting at them. This caused the soldiers to run from them as well. However it did no damage to the power armor. They tried to get within martial arts range but even if the humans were slower they were still wearing power armor and wielding lightsabers. They had no chance.

The Rebels walked up the stairs, killing anything that they encountered. They felt elated and invincible. They reached the top to find a locked door. They cut it into more pieces than was entirely necessary.

The room was round and had a bedroom suite pushed against the walls. In the center of the room was Morpheus tied to a chair. One of the Agents had his hand on Morpheus' mouth and had just forced him to swallow.

"It's too late! We have the trace program active. We will track you down and force the information out of you! We will slaughter the rest of you!" yelled one of the Agents.

Morpheus' eyes went wide with amusement at the sight of the lightsabers.

Another Agent said, "I have the signal. We are closing in on their location."

They stepped forward and killed the Agents.

Switch freed Morpheus.

"You did it! You are the One!" said Morpheus to Neo.

"Let's get out of here." said Neo.

Trinity said, "Jump to 114, 22nd precinct."

They nodded and concentrated. As they released those bodies, their old consciousness returned with their old equipment. The Knights looked around confused.

Five police officers looked up in the middle of the morning meeting. They sat through a list of the recent crime in the area and picked up their assignments for vehicles. Then they ignored them for the most part and got into the same vehicle. Once they were alone they used their Macros to changed their appearance but not their clothing back to normal.

Apoc was driving with Morpheus in the front seat.

Morpheus turned around in the seat, "Why are we still in?"

Trinity answered, "Cypher betrayed us. He wants to be a blue pill and he sold us out."

"What?!" Morpheus fumed for a moment and then forced himself to calm down and think. "So why are we still in? He should have been able to turn us over pretty quickly." He looked over at Trinity. "How did you find this out?"

"Neo was able to wake himself up and see what was going on." said Trinity.

Morpheus said, "What was he doing?"

Neo said, "He seemed to be focus on the Operator station working on something."

"He's trying to break the code!" said Trinity.

"That will slow him down but they have my location from the red pill they gave me." said Morpheus.

"I sent Mouse to get a signal to Niobe." said Trinity. "Hopefully she can beat them there."

"Megacity 314?" asked Morpheus.

"Yes, the Radio Station." said Trinity.

"Okay, Apoc, pull over." said Morpheus. "Focus on Megacity 314 Radio Station WMTX."

The car pulled over. Someone passing by looked in a saw everyone's face change but then there were confused and angry looking cops looking back at them so they moved on.

Five office workers in the radio station got up and headed upstairs to the DJ booth. They found Mouse in there playing Debstep. The regular DJ was outside the booth taking a nap. They filed in and looked at him. Mouse nodded to them and they used their macros to change into themselves.

"Morpheus!" said Mouse. "You out! - Well not out out. Are you out?"

"No, we are still trapped by Cypher." said Morpheus. "Did you contact Niobe?"

"Yes, they are on the way. We just need to sit and wait on them." said Mouse.

"We may not have that much time." said Morpheus. He turned to Neo. "Do you think that you can wake me up? Maybe I can talk to Cypher."

"I can try." Neo gestured to a chair. "Sit down." He pulled another chair beside his.

"We keep coming back to this don't we." said Morpheus.

Neo chuckled. "Now focus on your body – on the position that you body is really in." Morpheus relaxed and closed his eyes. Neo opened the code for Morpheus's avatar.

"What the hell!" yelled Mouse.

Trinity told him to hush.

He looked at the code for a moment and then opened a deeper layer, and then a deeper layer. He adjusted a few things and Morpheus's body slumped and changed back into a female desk clerk. He kept her asleep and linked with Morpheus's so he could come back quickly if he wanted to. Then he sat down and focused himself.

Neo woke up to Morpheus and Cypher arguing.

"I never said that!" yelled Morpheus. "You are doing this out of panic. We can win this!"

"No, No, No, No, No! We can't win this. They are machines. They keep coming. They won't stop." yelled Cypher. "They will never stop. They don't get tired of war. They love it! They've already won! Don't you see. We are probably just in another matrix running around like rats in a maze, only I don't want to be a rat anymore! I don't want to eat that paste any more! I don't care if it's not real. I think that it is more real then this nightmare we are living in, running around, following your orders like good little soldiers, but we're NOT soldiers. We are pathetic and cold and hungry and angry with you. We all hate it here. I can see it in their eyes. They just don't want to tell you to go to hell, but I can. I am telling you to go to hell!"

Then Cypher moved forward and leaned over Morpheus, "Now tell me the god damn code!" He stabbed a screwdriver into Morpheus's stomach.

Then he stopped and looked down at the blood, "God damn it! It does me no go to kill you." He pulled the screwdriver out and moved over to Mouse. Then he stabbed Mouse in the stomach, "Tell me the GOD DAMN CODE!"

"Stop it! Nooo!" Morpheus was trying to reach Mouse but he was tied down. The vital signs monitor over Mouse flat lined.

Cypher moved over to Switch. He stabbed her in the stomach too. "Tell me the code NOW!"

"It won't work." said Morpheus. "It isn't real."

Cypher moved over to Apoc, "Running out of people." He stabbed Apoc and kept stabbing with each word, "Tell...Me...The...Code!"

Apoc flat-lined.

"Stop it!" sobbed Morpheus. "It isn't real." Morpheus could barely breathe with the grief.

Cypher moved over to Trinity.

"NOOOOOOO!" yelled Neo. "Don't you touch her!"

Cypher was startled. He looked over at Neo and then straddled her unconscious body. "She really is soo pretty. But she never gave me the time of day. I guess I have her all to myself now." He looked over at Morpheus. "Tell me the code."

"Just tell him the damn code!" said Neo.

"I can't. There is no code. It isn't real." sobbed Morpheus. "That is what I've been trying to tell you. It isn't real. The code goes nowhere!"

"What are you babbling about?" demanded Cypher.

"It's a fake security system. There is no answer to the code. It changes every time you partially solve it. It's not real." said Morpheus. "It's just there to confuse any kids that break in at Zion. There is no code."

"I don't believe you! I've been trying to solve that code for hours it seems." said Cypher angrily. "I don't believe you!" and he stabbed Trinity.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Neo yelled.

Her vital signs monitor was beeping with alarm.

He couldn't loose her! Not again! " Murielle!" He could hear mechanical sounds along the outside of the ship and he could see a laser cutting through the hull in the background but all he could focus on was her face.

He lay back down and moved back into the Matrix. Machine gun fire was ripping apart the DJ booth. He could see everyone else's avatars laying on the ground. He couldn't take it anymore.

Neo stood up. Bullets ripped through his body but he overrode the death coding. He started walking. He opened the remains of the door where there were three Agents standing outside with machine guns.

"We have your ship now Mr. Anderson!" one of them yelled and they all focused on firing on him.

He walked up to the nearest one, "My name is Adelard, but you can call me Neo!" He shoved his fingers deep into the Agent's chest and code. He skipped past the code for the avatar and found the code for the Sentinel inside. It called itself Agent Brown. The other two were Jones and Smith. He took over the Sentinel and saw what it saw.

He turned and attacked the other two Sentinels. They freaked out at this and ran off. Then he turned and reached down into the hole that had been cut into the Nebuchadnezzar and found Cypher. He was standing with his arms out ready for the Sentinel to take him. He grabbed him by the head and beat him against the wall for a while. Then he let go of what was left. He turned and cut the straps off of Morpheus and himself.

He looked over at Trinity with the mechanical eyes and saw that her vitals had not stopped! He moved over and tapped commands into the Operator's station, loading medical skills. Then he moved the Sentinel over and set it down.

Neo woke up and reached over to unplug the spike. He jumped up and ran to the Operators chair and started to write a new program. "Get me a medpack!" Neo yelled to Morpheus. Then he took his new medical knowledge and used the matrix connections to the injured people to take over their vital functions. Then he stimulated their brains while cutting out the pain impulses. He prevented any of their systems from shutting down from shock.

Morpheus got back with the medpack and Neo came around. "I've got them all stable and in a holding pattern. Now we just need to get their bodies fixed."

Both of them started cleaning and sterilizing the wounds on different people. They sewed them up internally and then closed the wounds. The medpack had newer medical technology but most of it was older medical tech since that was what they had the most information about.

A few hours later he brought them out of their matrix induced comas.

Neo was standing over Trinity, holding her hand. "Hey" she said.

"Hey, yourself. How are you feeling?" asked Neo.

Trinity thought for a moment, "I don't feel any pain."

"I have you connected to a program that is blocking your pain right now." said Neo. "I just wanted to make sure it worked."

"I saw Mouse die. Then the others..." said Trinity.

"They made it. They were dead for a couple of minutes but we were able to get them back." said Neo.

"Did Niobe make it here?" asked Trinity.

"She got here a little while ago." said Neo.

"Did she let us out?" asked Trinity.

"No." said Neo.

Trinity asked, "Then how did..."

"Let's just say I was motivated." said Neo. He rand his fingers through her hair. "I couldn't loose you again Murielle."

Her eyes became wide, "You remember!"

"Yes!"said Neo. "I remember it all." He leaned over and kissed her.

"Just one thing." said Trinity.

"What is that?" said Neo.

"My name is Katherine this time." said Trinity.

"Katherine it is." he said.


End file.
